It's a tough call, growly. My current therapist seemed to me to be too directionless at times for the first year and a half or so, until things started to emerge with me and continue to unfold. Now, it's a little over 2 years and it's looking like she was just being patient and waiting for what she called a door or entry point (did not know that until it happened and she said we'd found my entry point or something like that). In the meantime, and even now, I've had a lot of life stresses to deal with, so it wasn't directionless in that sense. But on the deeper level, she wasn't going to direct things. I can see now that it makes sense to let them emerge. For me, it wouldn't have worked any other way, but it's taken a lot of time and risks to get to what now feels like the beginning.

Other than this therapist, the longest I saw anyone was about a year and a half. They all had things to do and suggest, which gave the appearance of a plan or direction, but it never got me anywhere and ended badly in a couple of cases.

I guess I'm saying that it's really hard to know if a therapist is just laid back and will always be that way or if they are being patient and will know what to do when the deeper stuff makes its way to the surface. Hopefully, Kashi can explain his approach more clearly to you.

eta: I don't know how long it will go. I will always need therapy, but my therapist will retire at some point. She once said she may keep working part-time and I could continue to see her, but I am afraid to count on that. It's too hard to think about, so I try not to.